A trainer’s experience at the Sengerema Community Multimedia Centre (CMC) in TanzaniaLismas Julius is an IT Trainer at the Sengerema Community Multimedia Centre in Tanzania, one of the CMCs supported by UNESCO and giving communities in developing countries access to information and communication services. Like other CMCs, Sengerema combines a community radio station with the infrastructure of a telecentre that offers access to ICTs and short computer training courses to locals.

open
News

A trainer’s experience at the Sengerema Community Multimedia Centre (CMC) in Tanzania

01-07-2005 (Paris)

Lismas Julius is an IT Trainer at the Sengerema Community Multimedia Centre in Tanzania, one of the CMCs supported by UNESCO and giving communities in developing countries access to information and communication services. Like other CMCs, Sengerema combines a community radio station with the infrastructure of a telecentre that offers access to ICTs and short computer training courses to locals.

Lismas first learned about the MMTK, the Multimedia Training Kit, on the UNESCO website and was later sent the CD, upon receipt of which he began mixing his existing material with components from the kit. He believes that the toolkit has improved the centre’s training methods substantially. “The MMTK was so useful and all the materials were reliable and arranged for the purpose of empowering knowledge and skills to all those who were using this kit", he noted.

The staff at Sengerema previously faced problems accessing materials for training. Compared to their original materials, the MMTK constitutes a significant improvement. The centre shares the IT materials with the students, teaching them Microsoft Office applications, such as Word, Excel, Access and e-mail, and uses the CD for seminars when the internet is down. Lismas also used the ‘introduction to business’, the ‘introduction to databases’ and the ‘introduction to digital editing’ software packages from the MMTK.

"The students have been performing very well in their examinations, producing results significantly higher than those prior to using the MMTK", Lismas maintains. Overall Lismas rates the quality, range and clarity of the kit highly, although he feels that there is a need for priority to be given to more technical software. He also thinks that there should be some troubleshooting material in the toolkit and that CDs should be regularly supplied. "I look forward to an improved and updated version of the kit", he concluded.

The use of the Multimedia Training Kit at Sengerema CMC is reported in one of the case studies annexed to the Evaluation Report on the MMTK Initiative and carried out by OneWorld on behalf of UNESCO.